Captain's Column: Shenton on season suspension

You can read April's edition of ROAR for free HERE.

We find ourselves in unprecedented times where the whole world is affected by coronavirus, with all the restrictions that have been implemented by the Government life has dramatically changed for us all. Saying that, I send my best wishes out to everyone and hope you and your families are safe and well.

Regarding the Cas Tigers playing group, we like the majority of people are working from home which sounds strange for rugby league players but we have all been given home fitness programmes to keep us in shape for when the time finally comes round for the competition to finally start up again. Dividing our gym equipment up has been an interesting challenge for the coaches to do and then create individual programmes depending on the gym equipment we’ve been given. I’m personally run off my feet with three kids at home that need home schooling, feeding and entertaining so when I get the opportunity to get in garage to do some exercise I snap at the chance.

There are so many questions regarding how the sport will look come the end of this pandemic, there is no doubt now it will look different. I don’t know the answers to these questions but all clubs are being hit incredibly hard financially and unfortunately we aren’t a sport blessed with unlimited resources but I can tell you all the clubs and governing bodies are working hard to make sure we come out of the other side in a place where Super League can continue.

On a more positive note I’d like to touch upon our last performance against St Helens at the Jungle. We went into that game knowing it would be our last game for a while and we wanted to make it a special performance. Saints have obviously set the standard for the last two seasons and therefore are the benchmark for teams to beat. We set out to make a statement in that game and I’m pretty sure we did; it was easily our most pleasing performance for a while and it shows what our squad is capable of. I’m gutted we don’t have the chance to kick on after that win but of course we all understand the situation at hand. Either way we’re in a strong position once we start back up again.

Our club is no different to other businesses out there and I wanted to say a massive thank you to all our supporters that have signed up for the ‘Club 1926’ initiative online.

To all our supporters, please keep safe and make smart decisions, the sooner this is all over the sooner we can get RL back.

All the best,

Shenny